We’re paying for repairs of microscopes for science lessons with the funds raised by collecting box top and soup can labels.

Don’t get us wrong. The Chronicle Editorial Board heartily supports parent groups that are easing their school district’s budget woes through coordinated efforts to collect and refund labels through the Box Tops for Education and similar programs. The incentives provided by retailers and manufacturers in the Box Top program — up to $80,000 annually by clipping labels, using online retailers, the Reading Room programs and the teacher registry — should not be ignored.

The funds raised by area schools are staggering. North Muskegon Elementary has collected $25,000 since 2002, including more than $4,000 last year, and ranks 25th out of 5,000 schools in Michigan. The program is much more lucrative than any bake sale.

It used to be that such funds would go for extras — special playground toys, expensive science equipment for advanced studies, an extraordinary field trip. And some of the funds raised in Muskegon County still are going for “extras.”

But increasingly, box tops are funding necessities.

And that should give the community pause, especially as it begins to grapple with Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed budget cuts, which will cut $400 per student from school aid funds.

The Editorial Board agrees with Snyder that cuts must be made this budget cycle. Accounting tricks, passing the buck and ignoring the issue are not an option if we are going to right the state’s economic course.

Of course, part of Snyder’s proposal is political. He wants to reduce public employee pay and benefits. He wisely is leaving it up to school districts to decide if they will renegotiate their employee contracts to get concessions, make layoffs or both.

School districts are facing tough decisions; just look at the troubled Detroit Public Schools. The state has approved a deficit elimination plan that would increase some class sizes to 60 students and result in the closure of about 70 schools. That plan would eliminate a $327 million deficit immediately, as required by the state.

Even after the budget cutting, our schools still will be in trouble.

According to an analysis by the state Department of Education, many Michigan high schools are graduating students who don’t have sufficient reading, math and science skills to get family supporting jobs or to go to college. Statewide, 49 percent of the class of 2010 was proficient in math, 60 percent in reading and 56 percent in science.

According to the analysis, of 568 schools that had graduation rates higher than 80 percent, 64 schools — or 11 percent — had student bodies in which fewer than 30 percent of the students were proficient in math. Another 180 schools, 30 percent, had proficiency rates between 30 percent and 50 percent of the student body.

If Michigan plans to develop a world class work force to attract world class employers, the state’s K-12 schools are going to have to turn out world class students.

Before the finger-pointing starts, what everyone needs to remember is that adult decision makers at every level of government and every parent and voter is responsible for visiting this terrible situation on our children.

Change needs to be made now. We cannot wait another semester to focus on teaching methods and curriculum that will produce the results the state needs. We can start by stabilizing school funding and ratcheting down the politics.